Rewrite, Rewritten
by Lady Eldaelen
Summary: Tumblr prompt: the Elric brothers switch places with Roy and Riza. AU character swap. We may need to rename the series.
1. Chapter 1

**Rewrite, Rewritten  
** ~ Lady Eldaelen ~

* * *

 _"Imagine an au where the elric brothers switch places with roy and riza"  
_ ~ Anonymous ask to the-flame-and-hawks-eye first seen by way of gomboc123 on tumblr

This is my take.

* * *

. O .

The rain was relentless, had been all day. All week. Ever since he'd been assigned to this goose chase, actually.

A saturated branch overhead finally gave way to the weight of the collected water along its length and dumped a fresh deluge on his head. The young man, clean-shaven and straight-backed in military blues, sighed before wringing out the damp braid holding his golden hair back.

"Damn terrible night," he grumbled.

An echo caught on the breeze, barely audible over the rain, but he thought it sounded like a shout. Lightning streaked across the sky and thunder cracked so quickly after, the man flinched, half-expecting a falling tree to take him out. This time, there was no mistaking the scream.


	2. Chapter 2

**Rewrite, Rewritten**  
~ Lady Eldaelen ~

* * *

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, ran full tilt towards the manor at the end of the tree-lined drive. A single light lit a window towards the end of the second floor. He didn't bother with decorum, hands already clapping before he even cleared the last porch step. Staticky, alchemic light crackled around his palms as he slapped them both flat against the door. Instead of bracing himself to stop, he simply melted through and into the house proper, the wood yielding to his power and reforming solid as he cleared the threshold.

"Help! Someone, please! Anyone!" An anguished plea greeted him from somewhere in the cavernous space.

Ed vaulted up the grand staircase two, sometimes three steps at a time and ran in the direction of the light he'd spotted outside.

"Where are you?" He yelled as he cleared the second floor landing.

"The library! Oh gods, hurry, please! He's going to bleed to death!" The voice gained volume the further he ran, but it also took on an indecipherable muffle.

Light seeped under the bottom of a lavishly detailed set of double doors and Ed shoved through only to have to jump, hurdle-clearing an obstacle just a few paces beyond the room's entry, precisely centered in the middle of a giant transmutation circle. Off to one side, a large form crouched over one much smaller and unmoving. With laborious clunks, the larger form -a full set of armor- moved, helmeted head turning towards him. Red coal-lit fire gleamed out, beseeching Ed to help.

"I- I don't know what to do-" a plaintive -and very young, Ed noted dizzily- voice whispered from beneath the helmet. It looked down, and Ed did, too.

Leather gauntlets clamped tightly over the right shoulder and left thigh of a small boy. Neither limb was visible beyond those points. Blood seeped out, adding to an alarming amount already pooled below them on the floor.

. O .

* * *

As Ed administered first aid -hell, it was battlefield medicine, slapdash and stopgap at best- he barked out orders to the armored figure starting to shiver and shake like the radiator in the drafty barracks he'd stayed in during basic training.

"Does this place have a phone?"

"Ye- yes."

"Good. Go call the hotel in town, ask for Lieutenant Elric, room seven. When he answers, you tell Al to get his ass down to Hawkeye's ASAP. Like yesterday. Can you do that? Repeat what I just said back to me."

"Phone the…" the armor faltered, attention still anxiously on the boy under Ed's care.

"Hotel," he urged. "Lieutenant Elric, room seven."

"Hotel, Elric, room seven," the voice repeated slowly. "Get here… yester…"

"Get his ass here yesterday," Ed prompted. "Hey-"

The armor looked up. "Huh?"

"What's your name?"

"Ri-riza Hawkeye. How did you know this was my house?"

"I'm looking for your father, but-"

"He died six months ago-"

"-he's not nearly as important as that phone call right now," Ed finished, securing one last bandage around the boy's leg.

"Oh."

"Oh."

The two stared at each other for a moment, both startled as they took in each other's last statements.

"Riza," Ed said, a bit softer. He pulled a tourniquet tight around his own arm.

"Yes, sir?"

"It's going to be alright." And he gave her a small, hopefully encouraging, smile.

The helmet gave a little nod and then Riza was clamoring to noisy feet, loping out of the library to where Ed could only hope was the phone.

Another clap of his hands and he pulled several sharp instruments from the blood-soaked floor and pilfered some tubing from a nearby desk-turned-workbench. After a moment of fiddling he jabbed a needle into the unconscious boy's remaining arm. Sucking in a breath and steeling his own nerves, he pierced one of his own veins with the other end of the makeshift transfusion setup and willed himself not to puke as he focused on monitoring his blood flow into the boy.

Dammit to all hell, but he hated needles.

. O .

* * *

Notes: The version of FMA that I know best is the 2003 anime, so that's what this is most closely going to follow. Though there may be some Brotherhood/manga bits in there, still haven't figured out certain backstory elements. In my more ambitious moments of delusion this was going to be an episode by episode breakdown, but let's be real, it's not going to happen that way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Rewrite, Rewritten  
** ~ Lady Eldaelen ~

* * *

A small earthquake heralded the opening of the door, or at least that's what it sounded like from outside the stately Hawkeye manor. Second Lieutenant Alphonse Elric craned his neck and head up to meet the eyes of the one who answered. And he knew.

"Where are they?" was all it took for them both to clamor through the house, up the stairs, and to the mess in the library.

"About time," his brother greeted, not bothering to look up, eyes pressed tightly closed and free hand massaging his temples.

"You look absolutely green, brother."

"Yeah, well, I'm trying not to pass out right now, jerk." He risked a glance at the boy, gaze well away from the tube running between their arms. "Color's better, that's good."

"We need to stop the oozing before you're drained dry," Al opined, checking on the boy's saturated bandages. "Want me to take over?"

"Please."

. O .

* * *

"Don't get too comfortable," Ed warned as Al started to maneuver into a more comfortable position after they'd switched places. "We should move him before I do any more."

Al gave him a questioning look and Ed nodded at the circle. "Don't want to inadvertently set something off in here."

He turned to the suit of armor, who had taken up a spot on the floor nearby, arms wrapped around knees in as tight a ball as one could manage with that much bulk.

"Can you show us the lab?" Ed asked softly. "Riza?"

The armor glanced up.

"Can you show us where your father's lab is?"

"Yes, of course. It's in the basement." And she moved at once, not even stopping to make sure they were following.

Ed scooped up the boy, ignoring the unbalanced lightness in the slight frame he carried. Al stayed close, keeping an eye on both their arms as he continued transfusing blood. The lab proved to be exactly what Ed was hoping for. Well-lit, several large workbenches, plenty of stock material, and for an alchemist specialized in combustibles, a higher than average level of cleanliness. A surprise bonus: a telephone on the wall, just inside the door and with a long cord.

Ed set the boy on the closest bench and let Al get them settled while he pawed through the only cluttered surface in the room, a desk, for a scrap of paper and pencil. He scribbled something down and handed it to Riza.

"Call this number, ask for Pinako. Tell her Al says it's an emergency."

Riza immediately reached for the phone to follow his directions.

"Brother…"

"She takes you far more seriously -and this is a pretty damn serious situation-"

"…what in the world are you thinking?"

"Uh, sir?" Riza pushed the receiver into Ed's hand.

"Granny? It's Ed. Yes, I know. Look, I'm kind of in the middle of an emergency here. Young kid, boy, about my age when-"

"He's eleven," Riza piped up. "In two months."

"Yeah, eleven. I don't know, taller? No, even worse. Left leg above the knee, right arm at the shoulder. Hey, I had nothing to do with- He'd be dead if I hadn't- No, look, just, when you preserve for automail, what's the best methods to tie off veins and arteries and stuff? Uh-huh. And muscles? Anything I need to keep in mind there? No, no trauma, it was alchemic. Yes, exactly the same."

Ed hazarded a glance at Al. "We both did, I don't know, a couple units each? Hold on."

Ed passed the phone to Al and began a circuit around the lab, gathering supplies.

"Tell her that I'll call in the morning if he makes it through the night. She can take the first train out and be here before lunch."

Al listened to the woman on the other end of the line and nodded. "She says she's retired, you inconsiderate idiot."

"Yeah, well, tell her she's two days closer than her granddaughter and this kid needs more experienced care than we can give."

"She says to call the local MD and let her get back to bed."

Ed clapped his hands against the pile of supplies he'd laid on the boy's stump of a leg and waited for the transmutation glare to fade.

"Local doctors in towns this small are hacks and there's no automail mechanics for two counties all around. I'll ring her in the morning," he repeated again, prepping even more supplies for the larger wound at the boy's shoulder. "Slam the phone down when you hang up on the old hag."

Al passed the phone back to the Riza. "You don't really have to slam-"

But she smashed the receiver so hard on the cradle that the entire phone cracked in two.

. O .

* * *

060418


End file.
